How Cossacks Went to Election

True, it did not reach a final decision, and the details will have to await the next scheduled Cossack Grand Council in May.

Meanwhile, as People's Deputy, General, and Supreme Otaman Ivan Bilas said, it is important for the Cossacks not to get pulled apart into the camps of various political parties and for this public organization to maintain its unity. Also true, this was said with an eye to the new law on presidential elections, which denies public organizations the right to nominate their own candidates to the state's highest office. Thus the Cossacks' ideological unity is like the state's gold reserve, for it determines the weight of Hetman's mace in negotiations, tactical and strategic agreements with those who are preparing for the presidential race. But first the Cossacks have to make it clear among themselves who can seek the role of single candidate of the national-patriotic and statehood-oriented forces.